Resultants and subresultants of p-adic polynomials

Abstract

We address the problem of the stability of the computations of resultants and subresultants of polynomials defined over complete discrete valuation rings (e.g. Zp or k[[t]] where k is a field). We prove that Euclide-like algorithms are highly unstable on average and we explain, in many cases, how one can stabilize them without sacrifying the complexity. On the way, we completely determine the distribution of the valuation of the principal subresultants of two random monic p-adic polynomials having the same degree.